WASHINGTON — With 2012 drawing to a close, advocates for the poor are asking elected officials to avert the fiscal cliff and its potentially devastating effects on the economy.
The federal budget “is a moral document that demonstrates the nation’s priorities,” said Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, on Dec. 4. “Therefore, the needs and concerns of the most vulnerable must be a top priority.”
Concerns over the plight of the poor are continuing to be raised as the U.S. approaches the “fiscal cliff,” a bundle of automatic spending cuts and tax increases that will kick in at the new year unless Congress and the White House reach an agreement on a deficit-reduction package by Dec. 31.
If a deal is not made, the Bush-era tax cuts will expire, and several other taxes will also increase. At the same time, the “sequester” — a package of automatic cuts to government spending — will go into effect.
Analysts say the result would be freezes in government hiring and contracts, smaller paychecks for workers across the country and a reduction in funding for government programs that many poor families rely upon.
As the year comes to an end, the nation’s leaders say they have had productive talks but remain divided about the best way to reduce the deficit. Suggestions have included raising income taxes on the top percentage of earners, closing tax loopholes, removing deductions and cutting government spending.
President Barack Obama has repeated the call for the wealthiest to pay more in income taxes to raise revenue while keeping tax rates lower among middle-class and low-income Americans.
However, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that tax reform aimed at economic growth is a better way to increase revenue. He told Breitbart News that reform efforts involving spending cuts and economic growth should be the focus of debt negotiations.
The congressman — who lost his bid for vice president last month — has also argued at length for entitlement reform, saying that system changes and a transfer of many programs to the state level will allow more people to be helped with less government money.
The long-term effects of the fiscal cliff are also a cause of concern. If the country goes over the cliff, it could lead the stock market to plummet and, if not addressed quickly, could lead to a global panic and massive economic collapse.
Polls indicate that Americans favor a compromise on budget-reduction methods and are growing increasingly frustrated by what they see as Washington’s inability to arrive at a solution.
The U.S. Bishops
Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have also weighed in on the debate, emphasizing the need to consider how different budget plans would affect the most poor and needy.
In November, Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, Calif. and Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, penned a letter urging Congress to consider the impact of sequestration “on poor and vulnerable persons and families and the programs that help them.”
The bishops, who lead the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and the Committee on International Justice and Peace, respectively, urged protecting programs that offer housing, food, health and education to those in need.
On Dec. 19, the bishops wrote another letter, calling for similar protection to be extended to tax refunds and credits that help the poor.
“Any deficit-reduction agreement or framework for future reform must protect the refundability of low-income tax credits, the charitable deduction and the millions of people who benefit from them,” they said.
The “moral measure” of a budget is “how those who are jobless, hungry, homeless or poor are treated,” the bishops stressed.
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Father Snyder and Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops should be more concerned about the middle class, who in case they forgot, are the ones that support their church and the poor. Where were you the last 4 years, and not calling on congress for a BUDGET???
#1 This is the president that liberals like Fr. Larry Snyder at CCUSA wanted elected. He has given us trillions of dollars in deficits, played Santa Claus with taxpayers’ money in order to get re-elected, has attacked freedom of religion, especially when it came to Catholics, is the greatest supporter of abortion we have had, and now Fr. Snyder is worried about the ‘fiscal cliff.” Fr. Snyder, why have you been so cozy with a president who has made the poor poorer and who has gutted the free enterprise system of the USA with higher taxes, more regulation and increased government spending.
#2 We have a shortage of priests in the USA (so we are told). We have many thousands of of priests coming here from central and South America and from countries in Africa. Wouldn’t it make sense to send Fr. Snyder back to his Diocese in Minnesota to serve the people AS A PRIEST who are in need of the sacraments? Couldn’t his job be done just as well by a competent layperson? Then perhaps someone in need of a job can have one. It’s the least Fr. Snyder can do to alleviate the unemployment problem caused by his buddy Obama.
Let’s face facts. Most people are homeless due to choice or mental illness. As to the “poor” the bible clearly says “the poor ye will always have with you “. The Bishops need to focus on theology. They have no more insight than the rest of us with regards to social engineering.
Taking care of the poor and needy is the duty of the Catholic Church, not the government. When you elect people who can’t differentiate between Christian charity and government hand-outs, you have the makings of tyranny, beginning with demagoguery. Many people who call themselves Catholic are not able to distinguish between the two, which results in a lot of people who call themselves Catholic supporting and advocating pro-choice (pro-abortion) candidates and causes. Christian charity is a gift from the heart; a government handout is money extorted from a tax-payer at gun-point.
Fiscal cliff. I’ve got news for everyone… we already went over it some time ago (months, if not years).
Like I told my parish priest who mirrored what Fr. Snyder said, there is only so much money in my budget. The more I have to pay in taxes means that I will have even to provide in tithing to my parish. I would prefer that our church be the direct catalyst for helping the poor among us, not leaving it to our wasteful government to do so. And, start preaching from the pulpit how important it is that we as catholics get out there and get our “hands dirty” and work with the poor directly instead of paying the government to do it for us. Don’t shift my responsibility to be charitable to a government program.
It is also immoral to continue to heap trillions of dollars of debt on our children and grandchildren. The middle class is continuing to struggle and many of them are sacrificing to send their children to catholic schools. They are not getting government handouts like the poor. Instead of being a megaphone for the democrats, perhaps father could come along side Paul Ryan and figure out the most efficient way to help the needy. That would be better than continuing to flush more billions down the government drain in waste. There is nothing moral about that.
Take your so-called ‘poor’ and shove it. I have lived all over Africa and Asia and America’s ‘poor’ are the RICHEST and most spoiled poor people I have ever met. Have you ever driven through South Central LA, the heart of gangs and drug country? I was shocked to see rather nice landscaped middle class suburban homes and neighborhoods and that is where these people live and prey on one another, deal drugs, live off of the dole in unwedded bliss. You know who I feel for? The moms and dads who stay together struggling to feed and clothe their families and raise them with some decency while ‘Catholic Charities’ imports Somali barbarians to take away their jobs and terrorize their neighborhoods. Do not ever give a penny to the grotesquely misnamed ‘Catholic Charities’.
I agree that there should be a safety net for the poor, but in due respect Father, we the middle class tax payers are paying for things that aren’t really necessary. Why are you not concerned that our taxes will be paying for abortions? Things such as Medicare fraud could be eliminated along with the way too much paperwork involved. We have a single friend that goes to the local Foodbank, and gets too much stuff—-5 boxes of things he doesn’t need but apparently are surplus things from grocery stores. Wouldn’t it be better for each community to oversee these things. and I believe that many of the churches, Catholic and non-Catholic could help people in dire circumstances. The government NEVER gives a free lunch. There are always strings attached. Please remember the rest of us, those who simply need priests to hear confessions at reasonable times, such as before Mass, and perhaps seeing what the rest of your flocks need spiritually, then getting the government involved again.
I am so sick of the mantra “we must not forget the needs of the poor” echoed by clerics who just don’t have a firm grasp on what is really going on out there. Yes, there are poor who work hard and are deserving of our care and monetary donations. These are the poor I saw and worked with a long time ago in Guatemala, the poor in Africa, and in other struggling economies.But here? Gimme a break.
I work with the “poor”, like the lady today with private health insurance who will be paid by my state to care for HER OWN GRANDCHILDREN because her daughter is getting a divorce. Though this lady is 15 or 20 years younger than myself and in good health, she apparently does not work outside the home. Then there was the gentleman paid by the state to inject his own wife with insulin, yet who “forgot” for days because he and his wife were in the process of “moving”. His checks still came from the state. Or the many who would rather be on disability than work, or who work and get disability too! Or the many who are not working and just too lazy to eat right…and chips and fast foods are a lot more expensive than cooking for oneself or buying healthy frozen foods. They will cost usa lot of health care dollars in the future! What about the lady who would never take her medications, or see her specialists, who came in in distress, and wanted a motorized wheelchair beacause her illness made it too hard for her to walk. (She already had one!)
Would that these clerics could spend a day with me, and see whom the poor really are! The deserving poor are those who work at menial jobs, support their families and have the honor to be self sufficient and do NOT suck on the public teat. I do see these, and they are deserving of our help, but unfortunately are few and far between. By the way, I see jobs go begging in my town because the hours, salary and benefits are not to the liking of the “poor”. They make more on disability and unemployment insurance!
From the sound of these comments, looks like the Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops still has no intention of listening to, or tending to their flock. And they wonder why the flock gets smaller…
The Church should instead focus on “teaching a man to fish”. Today both the Church and the Government focus entirely on hand-outs. Government won’t or can’t refocus. But the Church could be more supportive of the dignity of the person by practical instructive teaching.
The Bishops and the Vatican are very influenced by the media through which the Church has only one sentence or so to make its impression…it’s image in news blurbs. Therefore utter non nuance reigns. The media as our mouth is making our positions simplistic. The capital punishment position is the key example….it’s actually unconsciously designed for image through not facing nuances….oddly it never cites research. Spare the poor is equally simplistic. We give too little to the mentally ill ( they need costly asylums again instead of tents on the outskirts of towns).... we give too much to the poor ( medicaid pays for 37% of childbirths countrywide). Our simplistic social answers are an outgrowth of the soundbite culture. Having a bad image in history in some areas ( unless you like extreme stretching exercises), we are now, through soundbites, imaging the opposite of the inquisitional period.
I don’t recall the sermons from Apostles and the early bishops urging that Christians render more, ever more, unto Caesar. The “federal budget” is as much a moral document as the Roman census was. Before President Johnson declared a “War on Poverty”, it was thought to be a temporary condition that would be remedied when economic growth resumed. That “war” was lost and poverty won, and we have a permanent class of adults able to work but lack the incentive to seek work because of the “welfare cliff”—namely the salary they need to exceed in order to match what is received when they don’t work. Too many have been robbed of the dignity and self-discipline of work. I feel sorry for Fr Snyder. He and others like him want a wealthier and more powerful Caesar and go after the scraps that fall from their tables, and think that’s building up the Kingdom of Christ.
If my children had been put in foster care in DC, I learned recently, each one would have cost that city $50,000. I could have done a lot for my kids with $50,000 each! They would not have had to wear ONLY hand-me-downs or goodwill finds.-and maybe I could have homeschooled them instead of taking paltry-paying part-time jobs as a substitute teacher or reference librarian, while my husband worked one 55-hr. a week job AND did National Guard helicopter pilot duty (he did 3 years during VN)—which is MUCH more than one weekend a month as you have to “stay current” with NVG and also help others stay current. We would pass like ships in the night, and he survived somehow on 4 or 5 hours of sleep. I also volunteered as a La Leche League Leader, church choir member, carried a daily paper route, AND helped my elderly mother 50 miles away. ETC! Perhaps it would have been a kindness to my children to PUT them in foster care, and gone to visit a lot! We still have debt for our youngest, a college senior, hanging over our heads, old cars, and 3 years ago refinanced the house we’ve lived in 38 years one more time. . . we’ll never pay it off. I wish WE would get some breaks from paying for people who DON’T try! (I see plenty of them in the library.) And yes, we do donate time and money to the Church and to charities. The government is NOT God. Each of us is to give to charity—not the government.
There but the grace of God, how close are the employed to being unemployed, losing your home, how the rich to being poor(er). You can have more money than what you can do with, but if you are poor morally and spiritually, you are far poorer than the poorest of this world.
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